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Celebrating Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year)
Chinese New Year
Among the various celebrations and festivities for the Chinese,
Chinese New Year is always deem the most important of all.
Chinese families living in different part of the country or the
world will make it a point to gather together for Chinese New
Year (CNY). This is very similar to the Western concept of
getting together during Christmas.
Chinese New Year is also known as Lunar New Year as well as The
Spring Festival. The Chinese Year is also symbolized by an
animal, very much like the Western Zodiac. The animal to
symbolize CNY 2006 is The Dog.
Myths of Chinese New Year
There are many myths as to how Chinese New year came about.
The most common one is that in ancient China, every year, a big
monster would come out during the beginning of the year and
start devouring people and crops. One day, a villager suggested
firing off fire crackers, bang loud gongs and fly red banner to
try to frighten off the monster.
It worked! From then onwards, people would always fire off loud
fire crackers, beat gongs and drape their houses with red banner
to ensure the big, bad monster never return again. Till today,
Chinese New Year is still celebrated in the traditional manner.
Of course, that's just a myth. In reality, the Chinese uses a
Lunar Calendar which is different from the Georgian or Western
calendar, and so, the start of the Lunar new year is time for
celebration, very much like New year on the Western calendar. It
is also the time when crops are fully harvested and preparations
are made for the new planting year and people have some time to
rest and celebrate. This is why Chinese New Year is sometimes
known as The Spring Festival.
Start of CNY Celebrations
CNY celebrations starts with a reunion dinner on the eve of CNY.
This is where family members get together, no matter where they
are in the country or the world, and sit down for a good meal.
Reunion dinner is always celebrated at home but in recent years,
more and more families tend to have their reunion dinner in a
good restaurant.
After dinner, true to the Chinese nature, playing cards and
marjong tiles will appear and a gambling session amongst familiy
members will start. Once the clock strikes twelve, this is where
you will hear firecrackers and fire works being fired off
everywhere. The
firecrackers mark the official start of CNY.
In recent years, the Chinese government has clamped down on
firecrackers and fireworks in the cities because of fire
hazards. Today, the lighting of fireworks is most likely to
happen in the villages and countryside only.
Chinese New Year is celebrated with visiting of relatives and
friends. Everyone is expected to wear new clothes and shoes and
the popular color is obviously RED! There is always good food
and drinks and children are rewarded with red packets or
'hong-pow' from adults. These red packets will contain money and
is a major source of 'wealth' for children for the rest of the
year.
Adults will chit-chat and catch up with one another. They are
also likely to have gambling sessions with friendly stakes.
Meantime, children will be having new year goodies, games and
playing with fireworks.
In town centres and TV stations, there will be displays of
dragon and lion dance, acrobats, traditional chinese dance and
songs, stilt walkers, Chinese Opera, wushu performances and
other traditional chinese performances.
In the olden days, festivities will last for 15 days while
today, most people will celebrate for 3-4 days and spend the
rest of time at home.
Chinese greetings for Chinese New Year
If you have Chinese friends, do visit them at home during CNY
and you will be most welcomed. Make sure you learn a word or two
of CNY greetings.
The most common are:
"Gong Xi Fa Cai" - Have a prosperous new year
"Zu Ni Nian Nian You Yu" - Wishing you a abundant year
"Sing Nian Kuay Le" - Happy New Year.
Also, you may like to bring two oranges when visiting. This
indicates that you are bringing wealth to the family. If the
Chinese family is someone that you are familiar with, you may
even want to give red packets (containing a token sum of money)
to their children. If you have children, you are most likely to
recieve red packets for them as well.
About the author:
Ken Cheong worked, lived and travelled in China for the last
7 years. He contributes articles about Modern China and Oriental
Medicine and more articles can be found at his websites. Please
feel free to email him. You may distribute this article as long
as mention is made of http://www.chinese-culture.net and
http://www.quick-pain-relief.com
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